Name: Scallops Poulet Au Creme
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons milk; 1 quart scallops, chopped fine; 1 small boiled chicken breast, cut fine; 1 pint cream; 1 tablespoon butter, softened; 1 tablespoon flour; pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Scallops Poulet Au Creme

Ingredients

Directions

Combine milk with a little onion water or juice in a saucepan.
Add the chopped scallops and the finely cut chicken breast.
Stir in the cream, softened butter, and flour.
Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Bring to a boil and cook for 2-3 minutes until thickened to a creamy consistency.
Serve immediately.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + chickentop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,389 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Scallops: Provide the main seafood body and sweet, delicate flavour in the creamy sauce.
Cream: Supplies richness and fat, and thickens into a creamy consistency when simmered.
Flour: Thickens the cream sauce as it heats, giving it body.
Butter: Adds fat and rich flavour, helping the sauce feel smooth.
Chicken breast: Adds savoury, lean protein texture finely cut through the sauce.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil and cook for 2-3 minutes. Flour needs to be heated fully to thicken the sauce and lose its raw taste. Stopping too early leaves the sauce thin, while overcooking can make the cream break or the scallops toughen.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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Scallops Poulet Au Creme